Reproducibility of thalamic segmentation based on probabilistic tractography

Generation of Individualized Thalamus Target Maps by Using Statistical Shape Models and Thalamocortical Tractography

“…In agreement with the results of a study by Traynor et al, 21 we reported the lateral regions of the thalamus to be more reproducible landmarks for probabilistic mapping; the COM points of the connections to the precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, supplementary motor cortex, and frontal gyri showed the smallest spatial spread. The medial regions of the thalamus tend to have more divergent and less specific distribution to the cortex than the lateral parts 18 ; these findings are in agreement with well-known observations in experimental animals, including primates.…”

“…[14][15][16] Such methods are based on the fact that various thalamic nuclei present differential interconnections; therefore, this information can be used to subdivide the thalamus into domains that have different dominant connections with preselected cortical domains. [17][18][19][20][21] A crucial step during indirect neurosurgical targeting is the transfer of atlas coordinates to the patient's reference space, which is commonly achieved by a linear transformation that shifts landmarks (ie, anterior commissure or posterior commissure) to match the individual geometry; however, nonlinear atlas-to-patient registration methods have also been suggested. 22 Here we propose the application of SSMs to predict the structure of thalamic nuclei.…”

Investigation of Anatomical Thalamo-Cortical Connectivity and fMRI Activation in Schizophrenia

“…Thalamic connectivity and fMRI in schizophrenia S Marenco et al It should be stressed that the reproducibility over repeated DTI sessions of the thalamo-LPFC connectivity measures reported here was satisfactory, with ICCs 40.69, a result consistent with another recent investigation where spatial reproducibility of this method was studied in detail (Traynor et al, 2010). The poor reproducibility in the OFC and MTC (Supplementary Table S2) were most likely due to EPI distortions for the orbitofrontal regions and the presence of complex fiber architecture on the pathway from the thalamus to the medial temporal cortex that is not fully accounted for by the current probabilistic connectivity models.…”

Integrating Diffusion Tensor Imaging-Based Tractography into Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery: A Review of the Literature

“…It seems increasingly likely that tractography might yield reliable and reproducible results if it is performed under certain conditions [8,9]. In a study in which the probabilistic method was used to analyze the reproducibility of tractography from a qualitative perspective, the results were satisfactory in 6 out of 8 subjects if tractography was used for segmenting the thalamus.…”

“…However, for the other 2 cases, the authors obtained a poor segmentation, which was probably related to the lower quality of the obtained data [8]. In another study by Traynor et al [9] in 2010, the authors analyzed the reproducibility of thalamic segmentation from a quantitative point of view in a single subject. Multiple analyses were performed using the same database obtained from the subject, varying the probabilistic tractography algorithm conditions.…”